Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to a dark current excess prevention method and, more particularly, to a dark current excess prevention method in a telematics terminal and an apparatus therefor that can judge whether a dark current is exceeded based on a real-time consumption current.
Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, electronic devices immediately operate when they are powered on after being powered off. To maintain a basic operation of an electronic device, a minimum current is supplied to various components of the electronic device. Such a current is called a dark current.
Meanwhile, if the dark current of an electronic device installed in a vehicle is excessively high, since an unnecessary battery power is consumed, the battery of the vehicle may be discharged, and malfunction of the electronic device may be caused. Therefore, proper handling for the dark current is needed.
Korean Laid-open Patent No. 10-2015-0044201 (“Apparatus and method for cutting off current consumption of a battery used in vehicle”) discloses a method for calculating a dark current consumption value for all electronic devices installed in a vehicle and cutting off power supply to the electronic devices or generating and displaying a predetermined alarm when the entire dark current consumption value exceeds a predetermined reference value and a battery charge is less than a threshold value. Although the above dark current measurement method enables a vehicle user to identify that the vehicle is abnormal through the displayed alarm, a limitation exists when attempting to identify which electronic device has an error.
Similarly, Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0111948 (“Electronic device diagnosis information provision method of vehicle”) discloses a method for measuring a dark current of an individual electronic device in a vehicle and providing an indication representing that the electronic device has an error to a driver through a screen unit installed in the vehicle when the measured dark current is higher than a reference value. However, simple determination as to whether an electronic device has an error only by comparing the measured dark current of each electronic device with predefined reference value has been problematic in that current dissipation patterns for various electronic devices of the vehicle cannot be considered.
In a conventional vehicle remote control operation including, for example, a remote start operation or an air-conditioning control operation, a modem of a vehicle telematics terminal needs to receive a remote control message in a sleep mode from an external user terminal (e.g., a smartphone). Since only a reception operation is performed in the sleep mode of a normal environment, an average current consumption amount is predictable. However, in a situation in which a sleep mode and an active mode are repeatedly switched, for example, the average current consumption amount could not be predicted because a transmission operation is additionally performed.